Asia

Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Asia Times,

Is the world's center of gravity shifting to the heart of the Indo-Pacific – a new pivot to Asia?

Once again weakness in the US carried through to Asia with stocks unable to hold any National-Team-inspired gains, but it was the contagion to commodities that was most notable (as a hike in exchange fees snuffed out a lot of speculative fervor)

• European equities have followed suit from their Asia-Pac counterparts to trade higher across the board
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• Looking ahead, highlights include US weekly jobs and potential comments from ECB’s Draghi.

ASIA

For a second, it seemed that the broad risk-off wave that started in Asia, swept Europe and pressured US futures was here to stay. And then, the signal all algos had been waiting for emerged: Gartman just flip-flopped back to bearish.

From Gartman's latest letter:

A selloff which started in Asia, driven by renewed liquidation of Chinese and Hong Kong tech stocks and accelerated by weaker metal prices which pushed the Shanghai Composite below a key support and to 4 month lows...

Shares in Samsung Heavy, the world’s third largest shipbuilder, plunged by 29% during Wednesday’s trading session after unexpectedly forecasting operating losses this year and 2018 and announcing a capital raise. Meanwhile, Asian equities tumbled, led by technology, mining and industrial companies, with the MSCI Asia Pacific Index falling for eight straight days, its longest run of down days since 2015.